Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--An attorney for euthanasia campaigner
Lesley Martin told the Court of Appeal Monday that the evidence used to convict
her of attempting to murder her mother was not reliable.

That evidence, Donald Stevens told the court, included admissions by the
former nurse that she administered a fatal dose of morphine to her mother in
May 1999. Stevens said Martin's statements could not be trusted because she was
under stress and exhaustion at the time.

She had also been suffering a "temporary mental disorder" which made her
believe she had done something that she had not done, Stevens told the court.

None of three New Zealand newspapers named the exact mental illness
Stevens described.

Martin is appealing her conviction and 15-month sentence that was
imposed in April. Martin, who could have received a 14-year sentence, is
scheduled to be released on December 13.

An appeal to the Parole Board in June was rejected because she would not
admit that what she did was wrong and would not agree to avoid the media. A
second appeal in August was rejected because she still would not concede that
her actions were wrong, and board members believed she continued to be a threat
to the community.

Martin, the founder of a pro-euthanasia group, admitted helping her
69-year-old mother, Joy, to die.

Her guilty verdict came after she wrote about the death of her mother,
who had rectal cancer, in the book "To Die Like a Dog", and led a nationwide
campaign calling for New Zealand to legalize voluntary euthanasia.

Last year, Parliament rejected a bill that would have made euthanasia
legal.

Disability rights groups around the world have opposed efforts to
legalize assisted suicide for years. They have argued that doing so would
essentially make it "open season" for people with disabilities and anyone else
who is considered undesirable or a "burden" on society -- particularly at a
time when the cost of health care is high. Despite legal safeguards, many of
those who have been assisted to kill themselves have not been in the final
stages of terminal illness.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.